Wall Street eyes higher open as jobs data eases slowdown fears
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Bumble slides after slashing FY revenue growth forecast
Robinhood rises after Q2 earnings beat
US weekly jobless claims fall more than expected in latest week
Futures up: S&P 500 0.90%, Nasdaq 1.26%, Dow 0.44%
Updated at 8:43 a.m. ET/1243 GMT
By Shubham Batra and Shashwat Chauhan
Aug 8 (Reuters) -Wall Street was set to open higher on Thursday, bolstered by better-than-expected jobs data that eased worries of a slowdown in the world's largest economy.
A Labor Department report showed on Thursday the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits came in at 233,000 for the week ended Aug. 3, compared with an estimate of 240,000 as per economists polled by Reuters.
Megacap and growth stocks rose in premarket trading, looking to stabilize after a freefall on Monday as disappointing labor data last weeksparked fears of a potential recession.
"Since the jobs report on Friday, everyone's been nervous about a recession ... The claims came in lower than expected, alleviating some of the fear that the labor market was completely rolling over," said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital LLC.
"We have a reasonably robust economy and not an imminent recession, so we can wait a few more weeks for that final first cut from the Fed."
Money markets currently see a 70.5% chance of a 50-basis-point rate cut by the Federal Reserve in September, with the possibility of two more cuts by the end of 2024, according to CME's FedWatch Tool.
The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note US10YT=RR rose slightly after the jobless claims data.
At 8:43 a.m. ET, S&P 500 futures EScv1 were up 47 points, or 0.9%, Nasdaq 100 futures NQcv1 were up 226 points, or 1.26% and Dow futures 1YMcv1 were up 172 points, or 0.44%.
Global markets are still recovering from the rout earlier this week amid heightenedvolatility this week. Earlier in the day, J.P.Morgan raised the odds of a U.S. recession by the end of this year to 35% from 25%, citing easing labor market pressures.
The Nasdaq .IXIC closed 1% lower in the previous session, as tech stocks lost steam after a brief rebound following a global stocks rout, and weak demand in a 10-year Treasury auction.
Markets will now focus on commentsfrom Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin, who will be speaking at 3 p.m. ET, for any clues on the U.S. central bank's next move.
The CBOE Market Volatility Index .VIX, also known as Wall Street's "fear gauge", was at 25.82 points, up from Wednesday's low of 21.97.
On the earnings front, Eli Lilly LLY.N jumped 12.7% after the drugmaker raised its annual profit forecast, and sales of its popular weight-loss drug Zepbound crossed $1 billion for the first time in a quarter.
Bumble BMBL.O slashed its annual revenue growth forecast, stoking worries about the dating app operator's growth plans, sending its shares down 40.6% in premarket trading. Rival Match Group MTCH.O also fell 2.8%.
Warner Bros Discovery WBD.O dropped 10.3% after it wrote down the value of its TV assets due to the uncertainty of fees from cable and satellite distributors and sports rights renewals.
Monster Beverage MNST.O lost 6.6% after the energy drinks maker missed market expectations for second-quarter sales as budget-conscious consumers kept a tight lid on spending.
Robinhood HOOD.O added 7.7% after the retail trading app beat Wall Street expectations for second-quarter earnings, as interest in meme stocks and cryptocurrencies soared, and said it continued to gain retail trading market share from rivals.
Reporting by Shubham Batra and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K, Shinjini Ganguli and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty
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